Glass

Glass is a hard, brittle substance that transmits light fully or partially and is familiar for its use in bottles, jars, windows and other articles. Silica, or silicon dioxide, is the main ingredient of glass. To make commercial glass, the glass manufacturer combines silica, in the form of sand, with limestone and soda ash and fuses, or melts, the mineral mixture together in a furnace at a temperature of 1,700°C, before cooling rapidly. Commercial glass is typically colourless, but the glass manufacturer can change the composition of the mixture to produce blue, brown or green glass.

Wholesale glass is by no means limited to commercial glass, with the suppliers at productpilot.com displaying this material’s diversity. By varying the composition of the glass and the rate at which it cools, the glass manufacturer can endow the finished glass with desirable properties. Indeed, glass is a highly versatile product. When molten, glass can be blown, poured and pressed into a variety of shapes and subsequently coated, decorated or engraved. Wholesale glass products include drinking glasses, decanters and other decorative objects, household cookware, car windscreens, glass fibres, laboratory apparatus and many others.

A glass supplier or glass dealer may stock products made from heat resistant, borosilicate glass, better known by the proprietary name Pyrex. Silica is once again the main ingredient of Pyrex, but the addition of relatively small amounts of potassium and sodium oxides gives the glass low alkali content and excellent thermal shock resistance.

Alternatively, by adding lead oxide and potassium to silica a glass manufacturer can make a type of glass known as lead crystal, or crystal, glass. This type of glass has a relatively soft surface and a high refractive index, making it ideal for the creation of decorative glass objects. Lead crystal glass slows and bends light, casting it in all directions, so that such objects appear to sparkle brightly. Productpilot.com is a showcase for glass supplier’s high-quality products.